Last week saw feminist filmmaker Erika Lust bring her erotic XConfessions concept to Youtube with a SFW cut of Do You Find My Feet Suckable. Despite editing the film specifically to comply with the video-sharing platform’s guidelines, the film has been removed.

Lust has responded with a video and open letter, calling out Youtube’s hypocrisy when it comes to what it deems sexualised content. She compares her own age-restricted video with that of clips allowed to stay online: Best ASS Girl (Latina) and Lisa Ann Naked Show and Shake Ass HOT tits ass (18+) as well as some rap videos featuring naked dancers.

In her essay, Lust wrote about how it’s indicative of a society’s warped idea of sex: “When it comes to this YouTube ban, there’s nothing else to say other than: it summarises all of society’s laziness in debating sexual education, or trying to implement initiatives that are real and effective when it comes to eradicating violence and negative sexual behavior.” 

“In a world where Best Ass Girls, Naked Shows and Cameras Inside Vaginas run free with millions of views, I think that smart and intelligent films with erotic content should be encouraged rather than banned. From all the ways YouTube might want to save the world, misplacing sexist and hypocritical censorship or an ‘educational’ tag, are clearly the less effective ones.”

Lust asserted that her special edit was focused on “narrative, context, strong characters, and a cinematography that’s actually care for”, without explicit sex scenes. Rather, she used eroticism in a “ludic, suggestive and teasing way” with “sex positive attitudes where consent and relatability are paramount”. She also contrasts this with how mainstream porn handles sex.

“I’d rather have my kids watching that sort of film when they reach puberty, than any of those ‘educational’ videos I listed before,” said Lust.

Each month, the Swedish artist handpicks a new, anonymous submission from the XConfessions community, who write in with their ultimate fantasies for her to bring to life. This latest short film was the first on Youtube, following a silent, sensual exchange in a library, building up to under-the-table-toe-sucking while others study around them.

Lust has had her work shown at film festivals in London, Chicago and Berlin, with one of her recent films stealing the show at Raindance.

She’s firm on fighting the ban, as well as the culture that facilitates such reactions to actual art while championing acts of violence. “2016 is the year that we have to say enough to unfair representations across all media channels. I’m doing my best to create erotic films where men and women are represented as human beings, with their own ideas, thoughts and desires, and whose humanity is not compromised by their sexuality in any way,” Lust said.

“They will continue to plague our visual surroundings if we don’t speak up, create our own alternatives, and protest when people get unfairly shut down or censored. We have to actively subvert the unfair depictions (especially of women) present across all cultural genres.”